To All Intellectual And Manual Workers

The following is a complete translation of a text written in
Marseille in 1943 by Jean Sauliere (alias Andre Arru), Voline
and other comrades. Between 3,000 and 5,000 copies were printed
in Toulouse. It was signed International Revolutionary
Syndicalist Federation (F.I.S.R. was the French acronym).
Translations and Summaries by Charlatan Stew
Seattle, U.S.A., 1995
Taken from: http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/index.html

To all intellectual and manual workers: At a time when humanity,
led by madmen, strivers and hypocrites, is collapsing under the
repeated blows of greedy profiteers of

all sorts, we are once again making a sincere appeal to all
reasonable and practical individuals to try to avoid total
destruction and to take advantage of the present chaos to turn
their efforts toward a rational and humane form of social
organization. It is undeniably the fault of all governments
that the blood of workers has been flowing in torrents in all
countries for three years. Although Hitler and Mussolini most
directly provoked the conflict, others were also responsible;
including international financiers. Industrial and financial
trusts bankrolled the Italian Fascist movement and the German
National Socialists from 1919 to 1930. They also funded the
press in the various democratic and fascist countries to wage
the bellicose campaigns that incited the strong and unending
resentment in all countries from 1930 to 1939, which led to the
present war. At the same time, they blocked any movement for
the liberation of the working masses.

The present conflict is the doing of the money powers of each
nation, powers that live internationally and exclusively off the
exploitation of human beings by human beings. It is also the
result of international competition, shady deals, and political
rivalries between men and systems, as well as the result of the
venality, weakness, hypocrisy and stupid recklessness of the
politicians of the whole world. And we mean all of them.
Secret diplomacy has been used ruthlessly in both London and
Berlin, in Paris and Moscow, in both Washington and Tokyo.

Now yesterday's imperialists pose as liberators. The makers and
peddlers of the Versailles Treaty, the inventors and wreckers of
the League of Nations, the accomplices of Hindenburg and
Dollfus, the stranglers of the Spanish Revolution, the fomenters
of the Mexican counter-revolutions, those who have supplied
Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy-they claim to be bringing
order to the world. But they have never wanted anything but
disorder and the disunity of the nations of both hemispheres.

What do sordid English imperialism and ferocious American
capitalism have to offer us? Quite simply, a return to "the pre-
war situation," a return to the Versailles status quo or
something like it, and the reconstruction of the League of
Nations, the continuation of the exploitation of labor by
capital, the bank as mistress of the world, gold as king, the
thousand and one diplomatic combinations, the thousand and one
political and financial combinations that we know so well. In
sum, they are offering us the makings of another nice little
world war in twenty-five or thirty years--if the people of the
world are not capable of constituting a true League of Peoples
which would guarantee peace and organize the world through
social revolution everywhere.

On the other hand, what do the apostles of the "national
revolution" have to offer us? They offer a revolution in
reverse, which would throw humanity back to the darkest times of
its existence, into an abyss of racial and religious fanaticism,
a total slavery of the laboring masses and an absolute
obliteration of the individual.

Then there is the USSR. Even though Stalin's republic has done
away with private capital, it has not done away with class
differences. There are still high functionaries, the military
elite, privileged workers and, at the bottom, the people.
What's more, we find it guilty of having suppressed every
practice, appearance or idea of liberty. Unfortunately, the GPU
is quite the equal of the Gestapo; and, besides fascists, the
concentration camps in Siberia also imprison socialists,
Trotskyists, unionists and left libertarians. Unfortunately,
the USSR is also guilty of playing a diplomatic game which has
served the purposes of both the fascists and the imperialists--
and has made possible the unleashing of the present terrible
conflict.

All this means that the people cannot have, nor should they any
longer have, confidence in any of the rulers or their political
systems. Heads of state and military leaders of all stripes and
tendencies change from one side to another, tear up treaties
while signing new ones, serve now a republic, now a
dictatorship, collaborate with those who made war on them
yesterday, and reverse themselves again and again. They have
done this so often and with such ease that their honor, sworn
word, integrity and honesty now have no significance.

While the statesmen, the generals, the admirals and their ilk
are permitted to play their petty, mad game, the ordinary people
are paying the price. They are mobilized for the democracies,
against democracies, for the fascists, against fascists. In
Africa,

Asia and Europe the people are paying the price for these
conflicts. They are getting their faces smashed in. The homes
of ordinary people are being crushed, with women and children
inside. And tomorrow it will be the people who will pay the
price for reconstruction.

We call on all those who have chosen sides without thinking to
open their eyes to the situation. German and Italian fascism,
the products of world imperialism, are in their death throes.
Anglo-American imperialism is being aided by all of the
capitalist forces which are presently at bay. They are
preparing for (1) an imperialist peace of the Versailles Treaty
type, which will embody a new basis for future conflicts and
their hopes for new advantages; (2) the stifling of any movement
for workers' emancipation, with the help of the traitors and
strivers of all countries; (3) a settling of accounts, whether
or not this involves an amicable arrangement with the USSR.

As for the USSR, it aspires to be a state-capitalist world
power, which, because of its despotism, will be as evil as
private capitalism.

This will be the global order, unless the workers of the whole
world unite from now on to plant the flag of social revolution
in the chaos that surrounds us. What must we do to accomplish
this? First, we need to utilize the natural tendency of the
people toward continental unity through the federation of the
countries of each continent. We need to develop ties of
solidarity between the continents and give to these ties a
functional form through the constitution of a true League of
Peoples. It must not be simply a refurbished League of Nations,
with its self-serving-interests. We need to make this League of
Peoples into a truly economic, administrative and social
regulator of the whole world organized for peace and against
war, by creating bodies to serve it, such as an International
Economic Council and an International Administrative and Social
Council. But without doubt this can only be accomplished
through a social revolution that is as global as the present
war.

And to carry out this gigantic task the peoples must develop
agreement, join together and struggle, to understand, act and
strive toward the goal. In preparation, they must lay the
foundations within their respective proletariats for a vast
federalist movement that would at first be continental in scope
and, later, worldwide. They must be prepared to take into
account the various concrete realities and possible development
within each country, in order to plan their movement so that
their own class organizations will bring to life the
institutions through which the associated peoples will rule
tomorrow.

By social revolution we mean the abolition of political power,
of militarism, of gold as king, and of classes. By social
revolution we also mean the complete and definitive freedom of
speech, organization and action for everyone, the free
availability of the means of production for all peoples,
including access to jobs, products, education and security for
all. By social revolution we mean power in the hands of
everyone through libertarian syndicalist association, which
would promote production in all countries and worldwide, thereby
ensuring an equitable distribution of raw materials and finished
products, including consumer goods. We also mean communitarian
association,, which would satisfy all consumption needs through
the distribution of goods in the interest of all. By social
revolution we also mean creating all of the social bodies
capable of fostering full development and fulfillment of
individuals in all areas. We also mean the guaranteeing of real
social equality to all through the proper administration of a
healthy and popular form of justice, based on conciliation and
arbitration.

We need geographic association, uniting localities, regions and
countries through permanent liaison bodies of the economic and
administrative institutions, in order to better manage the
interests on all levels of all peoples harmoniously associated
and working together practically. For this to happen, the
social revolution will have to be not only worldwide and, as
much as possible, simultaneous in all countries, but it will
also have to make way for an era of reason, socially-conscious
science and freed labor.

We must make every effort. It doesn't mean fighting just
against Hitler's fascism, but against all varieties of fascism,
against all tyrannies, whether of the right, center

10

or left, whether monarchist, democratic or socialist. No
tyranny will emancipate labor, free the world or organize
humanity on a truly new basis.

It's not a matter of talking about liberty, but living freely.
It doesn't involve talking about fraternity, but living
fraternally. We aren't struggling to inscribe words on a banner
or to change the color of a flag. We are not speaking in
abstract terms. We want to progress from perpetual war to
perpetual peace, from human exploitation of human to social
equality, from total or partial tyranny to complete freedom,
from confusion to consciousness.

We don't agree to any compromises with anyone. We are not
attached to any personality or party. We want the practical
realization of the same social Idea that has been envisioned for
nearly two hundred years by republicans, socialists, left labor
unionists and libertarians. We are convinced that only the
method we have described above can bring it into being. Today
we come together in struggle; tomorrow we will work together
toward this goal and make it a reality.

In order to best accomplish this task, we are looking for more
people to join us.

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